Crytek has shocked gamers and analysts alike by revealing that it will now focus on F2P (Free to Play) AAA games. Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli revealed that all upcoming projects from studio will consist of AAA free-to-play games as it was the future of gaming.
The announcement was made after the game maker giant had revealed that it would release Warface, a first free to play AAA shooter with a PVP (Player versus player) component. Yerli also said: "If you look at what kinds of games are done in the packaged goods market, with DLCs and premium services and whatnot, it's literally milking the customers to death."
He revealed that Crytek decided to begin the switch to F2P 4 years ago, and started 3 years ago. The question of specifications however is an issue because the company is well known for its fine detail graphics along with superior gameplay. This does seem to be a task in terms of switching to online F2P which generally has lesser fine-grain graphics as compared to traditional FPS (first person shooter) games, for which it is well known.
While the company's two big-budget sequels Crysis 3 and Homefront 2 will come in $60 packages as planned, they will herald the end of a pay-to-play era for the German developer. Yerli was also extremely vocal about his disappointment with reactions to Crysis 2 and claimed that had they fixed the 2 major bugs and avoided "their fair share of mistakes", it would have done even better.
How the company would tackle such an issue of F2P payments was not mentioned. While it's not one of the foremost heavy hitters of the AAA world, it's released a number of profitable, high-profile titles which have done well in the market. If the transition is successful, we could expect to see other major developers shifting to F2P as well.